<p>At my school we have Gifted classes which are like special education but the opposite of the spectrum. You have to test to get in and the classes are more difficult. All of the Gifted kids go to one high school and no one takes anything AP. I never thought that AP was important until I got on CC. Now I'm wondering if anyone else has done Gifted and not AP, too, and how they fared/are faring?</p>
<p>Ap scores co-relate with the grade you recieved in that class, it helps college recongnize the difficutly. If for example you got a 95 in an Ap world history class, but a 3 on the exam it'll raise a flag for grade inflation. But maybe you had a 95 and scored a 5, then the college will recongnize your school is pretty challenging.</p>
<p>So yeah, take AP instead if you can. You can earn possible college credit and it will help colleges see the difficutly. </p>
<p>It's not that big of a deal though, because colleges will se you took the most challenging course work possible at the school you're attending.</p>
<p>I would take AP, but yeah, like Rh said, it's also important to take challenging classes.</p>
<p>The thing is...I either take gifted or I can't go to the same school. Plus there are about 3 AP classes that I know of that they offer. I don't have a choice...so I'm wondering if that's going to be a problem in the long run. Like, will taking Gifted matter to a college if the classes are at or above the AP that is offered? People know about AP, but not so much Gifted I don't think...</p>
<p>When you apply to college, your guidance counselor should send along information about your school- everyone does this, so that admissions counselors can evaluate applicants in the proper context. The information should explain about the Gifted program, including the fact that it's (apparently) meant as a substitute for AP classes. If admissions counselors see that the most rigorous courseload you can take is Gifted classes, not AP classes, they'll take that into account when evaluating how demanding your courseload is.</p>
<p>I would advise you to stay in the Gifted program. You might try this, though: take a few AP exams that match up with subjects you cover in Gifted classes. You'll have to do some studying on your own, of course, to cover anything your classes didn't and to get used to the AP exam format. However, if you do well, it's a convenient way to get some college credit and prove how rigorous Gifted classes are.</p>
<p>There is a place on the counselor's rec form for most colleges that asks if the student is taking the most rigourous (or demanding) courseload offered at the student's high school. So the relevant point is what your own school offers. OP is taking the most rigourous courses offered at his/her high school, so the counselor can indicate that on the rec form and the college will know that you have challenged yourself.
I think it is wonderful that you have the opportunity to take classes in high school that are designed for gifted students. This will serve you much better than the college credits you may have earned from AP. I wish a gifted high school were available for my son. AP/IB courses, while challenging, are missing the self-directed element needed by gifted students and the depth of learning is not present. Stay in the gifted school and take advantage of all it offers you.</p>
<p>Could you possibly gives us an example of "gifted classes?" Most places I've seen do something like this:
Standard--Honors/Gifted/Talented--AP </p>
<p>If you're school just offers things like "Gifted Precaclulus" and "Gifted English II," and not something like "Gifted Calculus 2" then colleges probably aren't going to regard it well. That would be because "Gifted Pre-cal" etc are still only high school, and if you expect colleges to treat them like APs, they must be intro college or higher. </p>
<p>I go to a school that only offers honors courses (and no standard or APs). The majority of our students are in the state gifted program (95th percentile+teacher recommendations all without student knowledge). I take APs online (the only one in my school to do so), and I found that they are about equal to our honors courses in their own way, but I doubt colleges will respect that.</p>
<p>My school doesn't offer any of the above. But I think APs are held in a higher respect nationally than any gifted or honors program. In your situation, it's probably best to stay in the gifted program, but I agree with the above comment that you should take some AP tests to go along with them. If the other school only offers three APs, that's not really worth transferring. But definitely do the best you can on any standardized tests, since those will be used to evaluate the effectiveness of the system at your school.</p>
<p>My school is like that . . . all "honors", and you have to apply to get in. It sucks, because many of the students aren't gifted, they just behave and get good grades for their parents.</p>
<p>^
Well, unfortunately one of our feeder schools is an inner city school. They're "gifted students" are frankly just average. Many times counselors invoke their authority to assign students to the gifted program over the state standards which are at a lot higher level at these inner-city schools. But of course, we gotta love our diversity.</p>
<p>I've never been to a school that offered a gifted program, but from what I've heard about them and friends I have who've been in them, they're nothing special, just a few very good students mixed in with some average and slightly above average ones. </p>
<p>The high school I go to is a gifted program of sorts. It is for sophomores, juniors, and seniors who are capable of advanced level work. There is no AP, as everything is already at that level or higher (with the exception of a few lower-level classes possibly). We use college textbooks, have a faculty made up of mostly Ph.D professors, and routinely outperform college students. Many students are National Merit Semifinalists or Finalists and many score above a 30 on the ACT, but ironically, take only one or two AP exams if any. Believe it or not, AP is a bad thing at my school. When someone says they're on AP, they've done something to earn a place on Academic Probabation. The secret is many colleges have their own systems for placing out of classes as well as CLEP, a much better alternative to AP in my opinion. Many will also let you place out of classes based on your transcript and ACT scores, no AP tests needed.</p>
<p>Personally, I think the AP program isn't all it's cracked up to be. There are many high school students capable of college-level work, but if that college-level class is being taught by a high school teacher, is it really college level? No. Given the willingness of many colleges to blindly award placement in more advanced classes to students, CLEP, and in-house placement tests any college will let you take, why even bother with AP?</p>
<p>Not every school is accept CLEP though, in fact I understand the CLEP tests are a lot easier than AP. My principal thinks that APs will be replaced by community college classes! We have a school in my state (that I hope to go to) that is taught by Ph.D professors and offers APs but as lower level courses.
AP Calculus BC would be something like MAT 405 and the last class the school would offer would be MAT 496. </p>
<p>Unfortunately, we don't had enough intelligent students to have many schools like this. -_-</p>
<p>I have taken both gifted and AP, but from my experience Gifted was only for classes before high school. Students just had to take an IQ test and get above 130 to be accepted, so there were a good number of students in the courses. Very similar to honors, and I would imagine that AP is more difficult.</p>
<p>The leveling at my school is:
regular-kids who probably won't go to college after they graduate
honors-kids who are going to either a local college or state college and don't want much more
gifted-highest level offered in the city, all kids who definitely plan on college and want to take rigorous classes</p>
<p>there are a few AP courses but not many and only honors kids who want something a little more challenging take them
people who are in gifted view the AP to be dropping down a level
to remain in gifted we have to take a certain number of gifted classes and achieve a certain grade in those classes to remain in gifted
there are a few average students who tested into it in elementary school and just stayed in, but by high school the majority are kids who are left in it are the ones who want the harder classes and to learn more
many of the students in the program have just as many ecs, same scores on ACT/SAT, credits, etc. as some people I've seen on here that take AP (for example: one of my friends who could have graduated as a sophomore because of so many credits)</p>
<p>I am not concerned with the level at which my classes are. They suit me fine. I'm wondering if there is a stereotype that is going to hurt me about the Gifted program or if colleges prefer to see AP classes, so I know if I need to make up for it in other ways.</p>
<p>
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Students just had to take an IQ test and get above 130 to be accepted, so there were a good number of students in the courses.
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They can't do that here because they wouldn't want to put me in a class by myself. </p>
<p>
[quote]
I am not concerned with the level at which my classes are. They suit me fine. I'm wondering if there is a stereotype that is going to hurt me about the Gifted program or if colleges prefer to see AP classes, so I know if I need to make up for it in other ways.
[/quote]
I think most people agree that it's more likely to hurt you, but you can't do much other than self-study. </p>
<p>Again, could you give us titles of higher level gifted courses?</p>
<p>The ones I can think of are Gifted Physics, Calc, Calc II, Western Civ, World History...there are probably several more.</p>
<p>
[quote]
Gifted Physics, Calc, Calc II,
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</p>
<p>Does that Physics use Calculus? It would look very good if you took AP Calculus or AP Physics tests and did well on them after taking an equal "gifted" class.</p>
<p>I'm not sure if it does...but that's a good idea</p>